Low salaries keep many teachers out of the middle class

Teachers’ starting salaries may be nothing to brag about, but a big problem lies in the fact that these salaries barely grow over time, says a new report.

Released this week by the Center for American Progress, the report says many areas of the country barely pay teachers more as they gain experience. This problem might be contributing to high teacher turnover rates and keeping educators out of the middle class.

While the report recognizes that low teacher pay is not news -– especially when it comes to low entry-level salaries –- researchers were interested in seeing if the salaries of mid- and late-career teachers “were high enough to attract and keep the nation’s most talented individuals.” However, in a profession where teacher turnover costs up to $2 billion annually, the results they found are quite depressing.